‘Jurassic World: Rebirth’ Review

Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Ed Skrein, Luna Blaise, David Iacono, Audrina Miranda, Philippine Velge, Bechir Sylvain | Written by David Koepp | Directed by Gareth Edwards

Jurassic World: Rebirth turns out to be an appropriate title for this seventh instalment in the dino-franchise, because it feels like a return to form for the series, following the increasing disappointments of the previous Jurassic World trilogy. Directed by Gareth Edwards, the film takes a back-to-basics approach and the result is the most satisfying Jurassic Park movie since Spielberg’s original, 32 years ago.

After a short prologue, set in a remote island research lab where scientists are working on genetically mutated dinosaurs (hint: it ends badly), the action switches to the present day, where we learn that although dinosaurs now exist on the planet, climate change and disease have killed most of them off and the remainder survive in a remote island region near the Equator, to which travel is strictly forbidden. Similarly, humans have lost interest in the entertainment value of dinosaurs, as indicated by a montage of museums and zoos being closed down.

Enter Big Pharma exec Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), whose company have discovered that blood samples from three specific types of dinosaur (based on air, land and sea) might hold the key to preventing heart disease. With that in mind, he throws large sums of money at a crack team of experts, who will be responsible for extracting the necessary samples: hotshot ex-special forces mercenary Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson), boat captain Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali), trigger-happy head of security Bobby Atwater (Ed Skrein) and bespectacled paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey).

However, a vacationing family – father Reuben (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), 11 year old daughter Isabella (Audrina Miranda), her college-age sister Teresa (Luna Blaise) and Teresa’s stoner boyfriend Xavier (David Iacono) – also end up joining the mission, after their boat is overturned by a giant mosasaurus and they are rescued by the team. To make matters worse, Kincaid’s craft is subsequently forced ashore, stranding both the team and the family on an island full of hungry dinosaurs.

The script is by returning screenwriter David Koepp, who co-wrote the 1993 Spielberg original with sci-fi author Michael Crichton, who also wrote the source novels. Accordingly, the story cleaves satisfyingly close to the plot and structure of the original movie, but with key changes in terms of the locations of the set pieces, as hinted at by the habitat of the three targeted creatures.

From the opening prologue onwards, it’s immediately apparent that Edwards – no stranger to creature features after Monsters (2010) and Godzilla (2014) – is alive to the pleasures of the genre and the perfect director for the job. To that end, he maintains a cracking pace, with the story flowing seamlessly from thrilling dino-action set-piece to thrilling dino-action set-piece.

Edwards also understands the sense of wonder and emotion that was a big part of the first film. Accordingly, there are suitable homages here that echo similar moments in Spielberg’s original without being either derivative or egregious fan service – one, in particular is surprisingly sweet, the whole effect underlined by a familiar snippet of John Williams’ 1993 score.

There’s humour in the film too, from what feels like a smart product placement gag early on (as in, “If we have to have product placement, let’s at least use it as negatively as possible”) to several great lines of dialogue and visual comedy moments, the highlight of which is an entire sequence centred around a character urinating in the jungle while a dino-battle takes place behind them.

As for the performances, Scarlett Johansson is an absolute joy to watch as kick-ass Zora, taking enormous, scary dinosaurs in her stride and still finding time to spark delightful chemistry with Bailey’s nerdy palaeontologist. He, in turn, is effortlessly charming, and he’s handed some excellent speeches, particularly one about how humans are arguably dumber than dinosaurs because we’ve effectively engineered our own destruction in a fraction of the time the dinosaurs were alive. He’s not wrong.

There’s also strong work from Ali, who sparks similarly touching chemistry with Johansson, as it becomes clear that they are former colleagues who have both suffered recent losses. Similarly, Blaise and Miranda are both good value as the sisters (it wouldn’t be a Jurassic Park movie without a moppet in peril), while the quietly evolving relationship between Reuben and Xavier is a nicely handled character note.

That said, you can pretty much determine the order in which the rest of the supporting cast are going to get chomped, as they are given little to no character development and some of them are killed off without us even learning their names. There is at least one surprise in that respect, and it’s an early highlight of the film, especially if you are familiar with the actor’s previous work – it’s almost like the dinosaurs are disapproving of casting choices and chomping accordingly.

On top of everything else, this is easily the best-looking movie in the entire franchise, thanks to state-of-the-art VFX work on the creatures and some exceptional, atmospheric cinematography from John Mathieson. Most notably, Mathieson makes splendid use of the colour red (flares, red alert lights, you name it), creating some memorably vivid imagery, particularly in the opening sequence and in the final act.

The whole thing is topped off by an exceptional score from Alexandre Desplat that captures the flavour of the original film and holds back its two main themes from the John Williams original until the perfect moment.

In short, this delivers everything you could possibly want from a Jurassic Park movie, assuming that your favourite film in the franchise is the Spielberg original. Here’s hoping Edwards and any remaining cast members get to return in future instalments, because this is an enormous amount of dino-based fun.

**** 4/5

Jurassic World: Rebirth is in cinemas now.